Death is Softer Than Life
by Roselyne
Summary: When the dragon balls become inactive for ever, any death - like Bulma's - can really takes its full meaning for the Dragon Team. Goten knows an alternate way to resurrect people. But… is Trunks really ready to pay the price... ?
1. Prolog - Then The Fire Came

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DEATH IS SOFTER THAN LIFE

Prolog - Then The Fire Came

Thereafter, Trunks remembered that day as the day which marked the beginning of the horror.   


However, the day had started normally: His mother Bulma was - as usual - committing herself body and soul in a high scale scientist project, and the laboratory she had transformed for the tests was swarming with technicians. A usual day at the Capsule Corporation...   
  


"I think I have the solution", Bulma had said. "If we can't use the dragon balls any longer because they are deactivated, why not reaching another dimension and bring back their guardian and their dragon balls to reactivate ours by a wish?" 

The idea had seemed great. Some of the group had grumbled that we couldn't know what was on the other side, on other worlds, that it wouldn't be perhaps as simple as that to get the dragon balls in another dimension, but... Did they have another choice? After the wish to resurrect the whole planet at the time of Majin-Buu, the dragon balls had been damaged and a few years later, their activity had vanished, reducing them to simple stones that even Dende couldn't repair. 

Without the dragon balls, they were feeling as vulnerable as kids; they had grown up too used to their presence as a safe-boat. 

***** 

Trunks entered, holding Bra's little hand, in the laboratory where his mother was spending almost all her time now. 

They were standing on a metallic platform. Downwards, they could see all the technicians working like ants around computers, cables and other strange devices. In the middle of the room, a giant metallic ring was standing. Bulma was calling it the Dimensional Transmission Matrix Gate, or DiTMaGa for short. The Ditmaga was almost 5 meters diameter, its polished surface was shining under the artificial lights of the laboratory. 

Trunks observed his mother, going from one computer to the other, taking electrical measurements on the Ditmaga. It was always when she was meeting a challenge that she was showing her true potential. She was a genius, and she wouldn't give up until she would come with the whole process working. 

Bra waved to her and called her with her high-pitched voice. Bulma waved back and moved towards them, allowing herself a little break. She walked the metallic stairs to reach them and took a towel to wipe out some sweat from her forehead. She removed for awhile the red hat with the Capsule Corporation label, which she was usually wearing when she wanted her hair to be kept in place and not falling in her eyes. She passed a hand in her hair and turned to the Ditmaga downwards and started commenting. 

"Everything is going into place. Until this morning, I wouldn't have sworn it would work, but now, I can assure at 95% that we'll be able to reach another world before the end of the month... 

Trunks didn't want to interrupt her. In times like these she really looked alive. She was in her element. If she wanted to explain, he would listen. If she was becoming way too scientific for him, he would simply nod with a gentle smile without disturbing her. 

"But first", she went on, "I'll need to make some tests, sending a robot to collect data... just in case there would be some mistakes about the location and that the door wouldn't have opened on Earth..." 

A worried look appeared briefly as she was representing the situation of opening the Ditmaga in the void of space. That gave her another idea. 

"I'll have to place a closed shield around the Ditmaga if something like this happens", she was talking more to herself, here... "The doors here are hermetic", thinking about the door at the entrance of the lab, built to resist explosions, and that one could only open by typing a code on the numpad, "but they wouldn't resist a de-pressurization as the Space-void..." 

She came back to here-and-now, realizing she was flying again in her technical speech, probably out of reach of her children. She turned to them with a warm smile.   
"Oh, I'm sorry if I seems to forget you sometimes... I'm so caught by this... I'm sorry", she apologized. 

Trunks blushed, "No problemo, Mum... We know how important it is for you, we're certainly not going to be mad at you because you are motivated to save all of us", he replied to her with a smile. 

Bulma smiled, hearing that. She crouched near Trunks and Bra and hugged them "you are my little babies..." 

Bra giggled with delight while Trunks straightened, and tried to get free of the hug, wanting to show that at 14, he was too old for these kind of affection, even if, inside of him, he really seeks for it. Bulma smiled to him, amused, and brushed her hand through his hair. 

"Mum, please...", Trunks mumbled, playing the proud bad-boy again, "I'm not a baby any longer..." 

Bulma stood up, giving them a last smile. "Oh I know, you are my big boy". She put the towel on aside. "I have to go back to work now... I'll see you both at dinner". She smoothed her hair and put back the red hat. 

"Good luck!", Trunks shouted while she was going down the stairs; she smiled back to him. 

"Are we really going to travel to another world?", Bra asked with her high-pitched, childish voice. 

Trunks looked at her, and started walking away to the exit of the lab with a little smile on his lips. "Oh, I don't know if ALL of us are going to travel... Methinks you are a little bit too young perhaps to travel" 

Bra's reaction was immediate and predictable: She started punching Trunks' leg with her little fists. "No, I AINT YOUNG!!! I WANT TO GO TOO!!!". 

"Yes you are!", Trunks teased her, running outside the door, pursued by Bra who wanted to make him to shut up. 

"You are bad to meee", she was screaming while the hermetic door shut with a soft "thudhh" that mostly isolate them from the noise in the lab. 

Three seconds later, anyway, Trunks heard faint shouts though the hermetic door. *it's not normal*, he thought, *why are they screaming so loud...*. While he was formulating the thought, he realized the panic contained in the shouts. He turned to the door, and started running to it. 

The building shook violently, throwing Trunks and Bra on the floor. Trunks stood up very fast and went to the door. The glimpse he got of the laboratory while he was trying to open the door was that the Ditmaga had fallen almost totally on the ground, and was only maintained in the air by a few cables, making the metallic ring tangling dangerously. Most of the laboratory was on fire, and the door was not responding because of the surge of electricity that had resulted from the power released by the Ditmaga. Trunks saw that his mother had been hurt at the leg and was crawling away from the Ditmaga, helped by two assistants. 

Trunks looked at the Ditmaga and saw that the cables were now breaking one by one. He started hitting the door to force it open, but his mother had thought of the eventuality to see Saiyans or even more powerful creatures coming out of the Ditmaga during a test. She had built the laboratory and the door, using the Saiyan technology; all the effort Trunks as making could only break the door; little by little the glass was shattering under the shocks Trunks was making by   
throwing his own body against the door. On the other side, he could see the techs running for their life in the stairs to reach for the blocked door, panicked. Trunks, screaming his mother's name, managed to make a hole in the glass that would allow him to pass his bleeding arm, the structure of the glass was altered enough now to allow another blast to break the door totally. 

As he was leaping for another final hit on the door, Trunks saw the ring falling and hitting the floor while his mother was reaching the stairs. There was first a big, blinding, bluish light; Trunks stared at the light during a painful second before raising his arm before his face to protect his eyes; he didn't see what happened next but heard everything. 

The screams of the prisoners of the lab were covered by the sound of the explosion which caught the lab, releasing at once all the energy loaded for the test. Then the fire came. 

The burning and orange wave reached the door and ended what Trunks had started. The glass, cracked badly by Trunks' efforts didn't resist and exploded towards the outside of the lab. Towards Trunks. The teenager got projected backwards in a fury of fire and sharp, cutting pieces of glass, absorbing most of the shock and thus, saving his sister's life. 

He hit the floor violently among the broken glass, burned and bleeding from his many cuts. He felt his mind slipping into a darkness where the pain was disappearing. He heard his sister screaming his name from a long distance. 

And then he was gone... 

[to be continued ;) ]

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And here's another fic where Trunks will have a damn hard time :p  
I'll post chapter one quite soon, don't worry ;P

Trunks: - oh yes! I DO worry, that's the problem! OO;

Roselyne: - Arf! :D

  
  



	2. Ch 1 - Let The Rain Fall

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DEATH IS SOFTER THAN LIFE

Chapter 1 - Let The Rain Fall

The wind couldn't blow away the dark clouds over them. The atmosphere was oppressive, waiting for some rain that strangely seemed to refuse falling. The wind was the only sound interrupting the surrounding silence, besides the weeping of a little girl, Bra. 

Goten glanced anxiously on his side to his fellow half-breed Saiya-jin: Trunks. 

Trunks hadn't moved. He was standing, rock-still, in his so dark suit, leaning slightly his weight on a staff up to his ankle, his dark glasses almost hiding his damaged eyes from the hurting light. His face looked like a stone, expressionless, mask which Goku had seen so many times on Vegeta. 

Goku glanced at Vegeta, who was standing on Trunks' right, wearing on his face a bitter scowl. He was in a way surprised that the Saiya-jin prince was showing a bit of emotions anyway. 

Behind Trunks, and slightly to the right, was standing Piccolo, and to the left was Yamucha. Gohan, as for him, was standing on Vegeta's right. 

They had been placed this way to eventually prevent Vegeta from hurting himself if he was getting out of control, but now, Goku realized that such a danger would rather come from Trunks. 

The boy hadn't spoken a word since the accident. He had raised an impermeable wall around him and wasn't displaying any emotion at all. Goten was watching him carefully, they were all fearing that the teenager would break at any moment. But Trunks wasn't showing any sign of any upcoming storm. 

He hadn't even reacted when, after his period in the regenerating tank, the doctors had announced him that his eyes had been too badly burned by the explosion of light to recover fully. He hadn't said anything or displayed any emotion, just stared right in front of him. The doctors had first feared he had lost his mind in the accident, but were amazed he could still see things after   
all what happened, but they were formal that there was a great chance that after a few years he would be totally blind. He had already lost more than 60% of his sight, and was obliged to stand in dark rooms in order not to accelerate the process. He was allowed to go outside but had to wear glasses so dark that - with the staff he was using to compensate his loss - he was already looking like a blind man. 

Today, as the weather was cloudy, he had put glasses less dark, and his friends could guess his eyes expression through them. And what they were seeing could cool them down instantly. 

Somewhere, in the middle of his grief, Vegeta didn't know what to do about Trunks. Even Mirai no Trunks had never gone into that state; or perhaps he did, when Gohan was killed in his timeline, but Vegeta had never witnessed this, and in the present case, he didn't know what to do or how to deal with his son. 

In normal time, he would have solved that with a fight. His personal experience had proved that a good sparring session was excellent for tortured mind to release their stress. But here, he wasn't himself in the mood for it, and his son hadn't recovered from the incident yet. He still had some scars that would disappeared, but his eyes were another problem. Vegeta wondered if Trunks would have to learned how to fight blind. Then he remembered that his son's soul was more hurt than his body. And the problem was there. He didn't know how to break the shell, the wall, his son has built around him. 

Bra, standing near her grandparents, was another matter. She was expressing her sadness without any restraint, which was perhaps good for her: she would heal faster than by doing like Trunks: keeping everything inside of her in a vicious and painful loop. 

Vegeta didn't dare to raise his eyes. He knew that Goku, in front of him, was observing him with concern, and he would never had admitted he appreciated this, and hated it in the same time. 

On a side of Goku, stood Chichi, Pan and Videl, and on the other side, Krilin, C18, Marron and Chaoz. Chichi looked like she had aged of 10 years in the passing three days. The loss of one of her oldest friends was too much for her. For them all, for no dragon ball would be able to resurrect their friend any longer. 

The priest nodded once. 

And carefully, slowly, the four hired hands began to lower the coffin into the ground. 

And still, Trunks stood unmoving, only gazing at the coffin disappearing little by little in the darkness of the ground. 

The sky seemed to have grown darker... but this damn rain still refused to fall! 

Goten got his attention caught by Vegeta who breathed deeply, his scowl deeper, as if he too was trying to contain the grief overwhelming him. At that time, Trunks showed his first reaction in three days; he fell on his knee, removed his glasses with one hand and put the other on the ground, towards the descending coffin. Goten was caught of guards and took one second to kneel near Trunks and put a hand on his shoulder, ready for the worst. Around them, the adults were tense(d), ready to interfere also. Goten looked back at Trunks and read the extreme sadness and horror appearing in his light blue eyes. Trunks was trying to contain himself, but his face features and his unstable ki were betraying his thoughts. 

Goten wondered why he was keeping everything so inside of him, why he didn't allowed himself to cry. He passed a comforting arm around Trunks' shoulders, but the latter didn't seem to notice. He was only staring at the hole where the coffin was laying. He turned the hand he had put on the ground into a fist, taking by the same occasion one of the roses that had fallen from the coffin. He   
raised the fist slowly to his face, the rose almost against his lips. The rain finally decided - in almost perfect timing - to fly towards the earth, soaking them rapidly 'til the bones. It was not a light rain that comes and go. It was more like some force which had been contained too long and was released at once. The darkness created by the heavy clouds gathering seemed to fit particular with everybody's mood. It didn't make anything to help them, anyway... 

Trunks was still kneeling, ignoring the rain that was impregnating his clothing and his hair, transforming the ground under his knees into mud. 

Goten, decided to remain near his friend, was the only one able to hear what Trunks whispered. 

"Okaachan... Gomen nasai... I'm so sorry... " 

And he closed his eyes, allowing tears to appear. Goten suddenly understood. 

The rain has finally decided to fall... 

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And here's the continuation. I LOVE putting Trunks in dark and angst mood, it suits him so well :PPPPP You just want to HUG him ^___^ (even if this one is NOT Mirai-Trunks :p )

*Trunks grumbles … in a way that suits him well* 

Roselyne: - See? :P

Trunks: - *POUTS!*

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Little explanation for the japanese terms:

Okaachan - or Okaasan : Mother  
Gomen Nasai : I'm sorry


	3. Ch 2 - We Are Not Alike...

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DEATH IS SOFTER THAN LIFE  
Chapter 2 - We Are Not Alike

Trunks was leaning against the plane, gazing with expressionless eyes the buildings of the Capsule Corporation. No one actually could have told that, as he was wearing his sun glasses his this sunny end of afternoon, but his face expression could tell everything.  
  
He replied violently when his father had suggested to move, to quit the Capsule Corporation headquarters for awhile. Trunks didn't want to leave the place. He was feeling it was like abandoning his mother a second time. His father was probably thinking it was the best for him, and Trunks wasn't old enough yet to have the right to decide against the will of his remaining parent. He knew deep inside of him that he would be back. He was just waiting, for the most appropriate time.  
  
Be back for what? Facing his demons again, and accept to die?

  
  
Vegeta was getting a last talk with his mother-in-law. Bulma's death had created in him the feeling of responsibility for his children. Mrs Brief couldn't help but being worry about Bra. Trunks could probably take care of himself, but she couldn't hide - even if she didn't want to offense her son-in-law - her doubts about Vegeta being able to raise Bra alone. She was feeling relieved in a way to know that they wouldn't live far from Goku's house. Chichi would never let Bra growing old with no care. But the fact to see her grand-daughter leaving her house was adding to the grief to have already lost her daughter a month ago. 

  
Inside the plane, not very far from Trunks, Bra was playing around with Pan. Her delightful laugh could be heard until Mrs Brief and Vegeta, and of course, couldn't miss Trunks. Videl leant from the side-door of the plane and considered Trunks for a moment.  
  
"Trunks...", she almost whispered, "are you okay?"  
  
Trunks turned his head to her, and nodded with a brief - artificial - smile, then turned his attention back to the building. Videl sighed and sit at the entrance of the plane. A knee under her chin, looking too in the direction of the building without really seeing it. "Your father think it's a better idea to take you away from here for awhile", she started. "It's not like you were all deserting a fighting place or something...", she went on, "but... you need perhaps to see something else...".  
  
Trunks wasn't moving at all; if he was listening to her, he wasn't giving any signs of it. She stepped out of the plane and put a hand on his shoulder, suddenly serious, "We're not asking you to forget, or to heal in a blink of an eye.", she started, trying to get his attention while he was still ignoring her. "I know what it is...", she went on, "it took me a long time to heal when my own mother died". Something changed in Trunks' breathing. Slightly.  
  
"Just take your time, Trunks", she added, her voice was trembling slightly as if she was remembering painful events of her own childhood. Trunks turned his head to her. She went on, "As long as you remember that you are not alone, and that your friends are there for you. Whenever you feel like returning to the light, we'll be all there".  
  
Trunks was staring at her with something like deep emotion in his eyes. She could guess it through the almost opaque sun glasses of it. She thought he was perhaps seeing her as a companion in pain. Perhaps it would be a start to break the Shell he had put around him. But suddenly, something went on his face, as if a flower who had started to open its petals to the sun, was closing on itself and shrinking. He just told her one thing: "Your mother died of illness".  
  
Videl was caught off-guards and nods, even if she had the feeling that it was more an affirmation than a question. Then Trunks reported his attention to the Capsule Building as if he had marked a point.  
  
*but.. what...?*, Videl thought, frowning.  
  
Trunks was staring in front of him without really looking. He was continuing mentally what he had started to say to Videl: *Your mother died of illness... she didn't die in an accident while you were standing a few meters away, unable to help her. We are not alike...*. He clenched his teeth slightly.  
  
Videl stood a few more moment near him, until it was clear to her that she wouldn't be able to create the slightest contact again. She sighed and returned inside the plane where her daughter and Trunks' sister were still playing. She shook her head, she didn't want old memories to come back now...  
  
Vegeta was walking with a fast and nervous pace towards the plane and away from Mrs Brief. He would never accepted to go away without his TWO children. They were all he still had from Bulma. He would take Trunks AND Bra with him, and if he happened to be wrong about Bra's safety, then it would still be the time to bring her back to her grand-mother. When he heard his daughter's laughter from inside the plane, he knew that she would accommodate with the situation, it would just be a matter of time. He considered his son, who had been leaning against the wall of the plane for almost an hour now. He was caught by Trunks' cold haze to him, and decided to wash the eventual problem fast. He went directly to his son, and before the latter could tell anything, he said sharply: "we're not running away!", then went inside the plane with no more words. Trunks was gazing down. Not for shame, but just thinking with anger. His father was perhaps the person the closest of the truth, but he couldn't understand fully either. He was feeling alone... and starting to feel hateful. The worst is that he was feeling that his anger wasn't directing against himself alone, but was starting to be directed against ANYBODY, especially those who couldn't understand. Part of him was finding his attitude silly, but part of him couldn't help.  
  
"Trunks...", Goten's voice almost made him jump. Almost. "We're ready to leave...". Goten was standing on aside with a warm and deep smile. Trunks simply nodded with a slight smile and started walking to the door of the plane, only turning to the Capsule Corporation building once he stepped inside.  
  
Sure, one day he would come back.  
  


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And here's another chapter ;-) Of course, I'm aware that the angst behavior Trunks has in this chapter should be more what we'd expect from **MIRAI**-Trunks, and not from air-head Present-Teenage-Trunks…

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Trunks: - Well… thank you for the 'air-head'… -__-;  
**Roselyne:** - OO; But Trunksie, it's not my fault… in the anime you *do* look and sound air-head… Even Legolas in the anime looked clever than you.  
**Legolas** [from the LOTR section of fanfiction.net]: - **AND I HAVE KEEN EARS!!!** .; (pouts and prepares his pack to leave)  
**Roselyne:** - OO; (wipes forehead) But the anime sucked anyway…And you look sooooooo cool in the movie…^____^

*Legolas is debating if he should stays or not*

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Roselyne: - and you have such cool hair ^___^

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Legolas: - ^^   
**Legolas:** - ^^;  
**Legolas:** - ^^;;;;;;  
**Legolas**: - okie I stay ^__^  
  
**Trunks:** - you weak human! .  
**Legolas:** - ELF! ELF! Repeat after me, "Elf"!  
**Trunks:** - "Elf"  
**Legolas:** - Great, you see you can do it ! :D Tomorrow we'll make a word of TWO syllabs: "Ar-row"  
**Trunks: **- -__-;  
**Legolas:** - which part of the word you didn't get? :)  
**Trunks:** - MAA SEEEENK--  
**Roselyne:** - STOP!!!! Trunksie, if you touch one of Legolas' hair [Legolas is meanwhile passing his hand through his beautiful hair, smiling proudly],_ I swear you'll be wearing an outfit similar to Goku's next chapter!!! :-E  
**Trunks:** - EEEEEK **ORANGE**!!! This color doesn't fit with my hair color!!!!!!!!!!  
_

*Trunks runs away screaming insanely*  


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Roselyne: - sorry people for this extra part that was almost as long as the chapter ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; But you have discovered that these boys are very hair-sensitive ;PPP  



	4. Ch 3 - Just a Nightmare

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DEATH IS SOFTER THAN LIFE

Chapter 3 - Just a Nightmare

  
  


Everything had been just a nightmare. 

Trunks had seen all the recent events in a flash who had lasted half a second in reality. A flash so real that he was still feeling some cold inside of him. 

At the moment the Ditmaga was falling, a last push on the door made it break, and Trunks could rush inside, while the prisoners were running outside the laboratory in total panic. He reached his mother when the Ditmaga hit the floor in a blinding, bluish, light explosion. He couldn't get his mother and him back to the door in time, so instead, he used his own body as a shield for her and created another ki-shield to protect them both from the worst of the inferno. The next moment, he was piercing the ceiling with his mother in his arms and was flying away from the hell that had become the lab. 

Of course they had been both hurt and burned, but they were alive. Most of the technicians had perished in the explosion, and some of them, at the door, had absorbed most of the shock, allowing those already a few feet away, and Bra, to escape unharmed. 

A few hours in the regenerating tank for Trunks and a few days for Bulma had healed them almost totally. Bulma had started an investigation afterwards, from the videos and the records of electrical tensions, and had found the flaw in the device. It was something to do with the metal of the ring which had absorbed the energy, instead of simply conduct it, as it was planned at that period of the test. She decided to combine the initial metal with the metal the saiya-jins were using in a stronger but more flexible alliage. 

After a few months, another test was conducted more carefully and this time, the result had proved to be what Bulma was expecting. 

A few days after Trunks had turned 15, they had decided to send a small group of warriors in recognizing team into the parallel world that Bulma had been studying for a few days. After she was sure it was Earth and that the atmosphere was allowing life, Trunks, Vegeta, Goten, Gohan and Goku had been sent. 

They had arrived in an alternate version of their world where the Saiya-jin never existed. The Capsule Corporation and Doctor Gero had associated their knowledge and technologies to face some powerful alien enemies invading the Earth. Goku and his team had joined a small group of powerful cyborgs created by Gero, and the aliens had been wiped away from Earth after a few months of fight. Gohan had been killed in the fight, but hopefully Piccolo's father and Kami were still on Earth, and so were the dragon balls. Gohan had been wished back, and after a year, another wish had been made to repair the dragon ball of the Z-warriors' Earth. 

The years following that event, the Ditmaga between those two worlds remained almost all the time open. The Bulma's of the two alternative worlds were sharing their knowledge and technologies, and the Z-warriors were always ready to go into a fight to defend the two worlds; especially since the alternate world had no pointy-haired psychopath Saiya-jins to defend them... 

For the first time in ages, the Earth hadn't faced any wars for years and the humans were meeting a prosperous time. Even if born-to-be-fighters as Vegeta and Goku were feeling annoyed and were going into sparring sessions for any reasons, the others were really enjoying their time and seizing the day. Trunks had married Mercedes, Gero's daughter in the alternate world, while Bra was constantly after Goten who was still thinking of himself as too old for her. Trunks was amused to see how Goten was trying to escape Bra all the time, and had given her some useful tricks to make things even more difficult for his best friend. 

Trunks had already a 3 years old son named Subaru and another one was on his way when Bulma received the Peace Nobel Price for one of her best invention: a device which could create food from pure energy. It was not really food, but some kind of liquid containing every elements necessary, proteins, lipids, glucids, mineral salts, ... And many kind of different types of composition could be created. 

With devices like these, no one would never be hungry. Bulma had already finished the device a month earlier, but she had worked out to improve it so that it could also take its energy from the sun or the moon-light. She didn't want to present something half-done to the Scientific Congress. 

The day where she received the Peace Nobel Price at the ceremony, all the team was gathered. Trunks was standing between his wife and his sister. Vegeta was behind them. When Bulma was called by the president of the Scientific Congress, Trunks turned to his sister: "I was sure one day all her work would be recognized." 

Bra had tears in her eyes, and whispered back while their mother was reaching the podium: "I know how she has been committed in her work. It must be the most beautiful day of her life". 

Trunks pressed her arm gently and turned to talk to his father. Whatever he wanted to tell him, he forgot it when he saw the look on his father's face. An horrified look. Vegeta turned to his son, then to the podium. 

"Look", Trunks heard his father screaming, "Her hat.... Her hat is BURNING!"   


  


Trunks jerked away from the linen of his bed, almost screaming. 

Almost. 

His heart was pounding and he was breathing hard, more like gasping for air. He ran a hand thought his hair and found them soaked with sweat that was running on his forehead. He looked around and recognizes his room. 

His new room, in his new house. 

All the cruel reality came back to him. Bulma, the explosion, the decision of his father to move to another place, closer to Goku. 

He curled up and put his hands on the side of his head and closed his eyes to try to chase away - without success - the pictures always coming to his mind. 

How long his sister had been standing by the open door in the middle of the night, he didn't know, but it's her voice who snapped him out of his mental torture. 

"I miss mummy too, Nii-chan", she said softly. Trunks almost jumped in the air. He hadn't felt her entering his room. Her voice was so calm, yet loaded with sadness. In the semi-darkness of the room, she looked much more older than 6 years old. An adult expression on a child's face. Trunks smiled to her slightly and opened his arms so that she could come near him. He couldn't stay in his silence like that. He had to take care of her. He knew his father was not the king of tenderness and would perhaps not be able to comfort his daughter correctly. 

Bra sit on the bed near him. She was holding something, a picture. She was looking down at it. Trunks glanced at the picture and recognized it. This picture had been taken two years ago, when the whole family had gone to an amusement part. On the picture, taken by Chichi, Bulma was holding her two kids tenderly. Vegeta, in some hawaiian shirt was standing away, his hands in his pocket, acting as if he liked as well being shot in picture as a kid can like eating spinach. 

"Why can't we go back in time?", she whispered with a weak voice. Trunks instantly thought about the time-machine Mirai- Trunks was using, but remembered what the latter had told. He turned to his sister: "because this would just create a world where she's still alive, but our world would still exist", he whispered back to her, in the same calm-wanna-be tone. He hugged her, acting responsibly for the first time in more than a month. 

"Remember that time", she started on a more joyful tone, "Tousan and Goku-san had been into a hammer contest and broken the whole machine", she had a sad laugh. "Mom was so angry with Dad that day, she was cared we would all be thrown outside the park". 

Trunks remembered at that time something from his childhood, when his father was going to sacrify himself to kill Buu and save the world. "Take care of your mother. I love you both". That's what he had said. It was a painful yet revealing moment for a 8 years old kid. He turned his attention back to his sister. "They were fighting all the time, but I know Dad was caring about her", he whispered. Bra nodded. 

He went silent for a moment, then continued: "Dad couldn't do more than he already did for her. 

*He wasn't there when she died. *I* was! *, he thought with a violence that surprised him. 

Bra turned to him, "Can I stay with you tonight? I'm scared of sleeping alone in my room...", she added, almost ashamed of her own fear. Trunks understood, she wasn't exactly afraid, but she was feeling alone. "Sure, you can stay here.", he replied softly, moving to the side of the bed so that she could have some place to lie down. "But tomorrow, you'll have to sleep in *your* room", he added, playfully, looking at the ceiling. 

Bra lay down on his side and stared at the ceiling too. 

"Are we going to stay here forever?", she asked with her sweet and high-pitched whisper. 

Trunks frowned slightly. "Nope", he whispered. "It's just for a little while... We'll be back..." 

He thought deeper *even if I have to go back alone, *I* will be back. I will not flee*. 

[to be continued ;) ]

  
  
  
  
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And the lesson of the day is: _

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"Never trust me when in a story of mine, you read a fast summary for events that took years to happened. It's never real :p "  
*lets go an uncontrollable and psychotic evil laugh :D *

****

Legolas, to Trunks: And *your* lesson of the day is: "Ar-row"  
**Trunks**: - What?  
**Legolas**: - well, yesterday you managed to say "elf" and I told you today would be a two-syllab word :p

*Trunks turns SSJ*

****

Roselyne (with a falsetto voice): - "Oh, but it's Goku's fighting outfit! Look at this **WONDERFUL ORANGE** color. I wonder how it would fit with someone with **purple hair**… :D "

__

*Trunks runs away screaming insanely*

****

Legolas, shouting after him: "Remember tomorrow we do a three-syllabs word: **Ba-zoo-ka** ! :D "  
**Roselyne**: Man, you are becoming as evil as me… :)  
**Legolas:** ^^;


	5. Ch 4 No Part in This

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the DBZ characters. No need to sue me also, unless being paid with some chocolates would be enough for you ;-)_

**_DEATH IS SOFTER THAN LIFE_**

Chapter 4 – No Part in This

  
Trunks woke up that morning with the dull feeling he hadn't slept at all. His sister laid curled up on his side, an innocent look on her face. She looked so much like an angel during these moments. Trunks leant to her and unfolded her hand to release the object she had been holding through the night. He looked at the picture again, his mind drifting from this place to the "good ol' time".

He was interrupted from his mind walk by the voice of his father – and he knew then what had woken him so. "Trunks! Goten is there! If you don't want both of you to be late at school, hurry up!!"

Trunks closed his eyes and sighed through his teeth. He didn't want to meet new people; he didn't want to loose his time trying to act as if life was continuing. He wanted to spend all his time trying to figure out a way to bring his mother back, and to pay for his weakness to save her before.

He looked around him and observed his room. _No, he corrected mentally, __this isn't my room and my house! This will never be!_

He wanted to be far from this place, this home-mimic, to refresh his mind and starts gathering any ideas that would help his purpose. He had the feeling that this house was so oppressively leaning on him that he would soon twist on the floor and gasp for air like a fish out of water.

That feeling seemed odd for a moment, but that's what gave him the impulse to jump out of his bed and to catch some clothes.

He was walking with Goten towards the latter's school. They had choose not to fly in order not to bring too much attention on them. They had landed not far from the school-area and now were finishing the rest of the travel on feet. 

Trunks was somehow angry on his friend. It was as if Goku's son knew he had an escape in mind, and had managed to push him back in the correct direction each time Trunks was moving slightly away from their flying path. Of course, he didn't say straight to Trunks that he "shouldn't try to escape". He was using other terms like "you don't know well where the high-school is yet, don't try any shortcut, you'd arrive by the end of the afternoon", or "don't linger behind. You don't have to be shy for your first day at school, no one will bite you", or other sweet similar sentences. Trunks was somehow grateful to Goten for this… Even if the fact he couldn't find a way to avoid school was getting on his nerves. He liked so much the sensation of the wind on his face and in his air, it seemed to smooth his pain…

In "good ol' time", he was always flying whenever he had too much energy to spend or a boiling mind to calm. The difference was that back then he never had to wonder if some chaotic flights or over speedy loopings wouldn't make him drop his sunglasses… He hated to feel diminish like that!

While walking alongside his friend, Trunks thought that Goten had so much talked about all the mischief there that he would feel in familiar area…

But when he arrived near the entrance of the high-school, he stopped right on the spot. He didn't want to change his life, and had the feelings that as son as he would pass the gate, he would sign for an escape from his responsibilities… that he would leave his mother behind…

And also, what bothered him the most was the gaze that almost all the students turned towards him, standing in the entrance like the ghost he was. And there were these whisperings and this recognition in their eyes, as if they knew all about him.

_How dared them?_

He hated to be the centre of this type of sick attention. Trunks felt anger growing inside of him and realized that if his self-control was to slip, no one would return home today.

Goten felt his uncomfort and gently took his arm to help him pass the gate. Reluctant at first, Trunks realized he would make a fool of himself if he lingered there any longer.

_'I am not running away…', he thought, __'I will never be part of them…'._

And as he was doing his first step inside the high-school, his only thought was that this fake life would be over very soon and that he'd be back to his main goal.

_[To be continued ;-) ]_

_****************************_

_Yep, the story wasn't dead as some of you asked me in mails… I just needed the time and inspiration to get back to it ^^;  
(and I need to find the exact plan of the story on some CD-backup ^^; )_

_I wrote it straight in English without a French version first, so I don't know if what I wrote is… understandable… ^^  
Sorry also for this short chapter… If I wanted something to be post before the end of the year, I had to find a way not to linger on it ;p  
(next one will be better ;) ............. (dramatic pause) ............. I hope oO;;;; )_

_Anyway, hope that you didn't lost memories of the story (with the time it took to update ^^; ), in next chapter, there will be more… actions ;-P_


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